New Daily pic of your Z3 thread (or what we do for love)

[cyberman]

The old thread was closed at 60+ pages, so here's a new one. I banged up my knuckles and slightly shredded a finger installing a new cruise control cable. I decided to take the "do no research" challenge and figure it out on my own. It was a nice puzzle, those whacky BMW engineers always figure out the most arcane ways to do stuff. It wasn't a PITA, I'll have to coin an new one, an ache is a lessor pain, so this job was an AITA.

So here it is:

cruisecable.jpg

On other fronts, my new white leather seat upholstery was shipped by lseat.com in an unexpectedly short time of 10 business days. Good news, but then I called the shop to schedule the work. Thanks to all this unburnt pandemic cloister cash, the shop is booked out for a month. Had I'd known, I would have booked two weeks ago when I ordered the leather. lseat.com's reviews are all over the board. The seemed to do well on BBB until about the start of the pandemic. Maybe they're recovering now. I'll bring the leather to the shop and get their opinion on quality, The fit will be an unknown until they do the job and I hope it's a bit loose so the shop can pad it out with cotton batting.

[cyberman]

Seat leather came in today, nice:

SeatLeather.jpg

It's not super soft or plush, but for the price I think it's a good value.

[CoconutPete]

Where is it from Cyberman? I'm eyeing a couple of "needs love" sports seats in my area now and new covers like that would be just what I needed...

[cyberman]

Where is it from Cyberman? I'm eyeing a couple of "needs love" sports seats in my area now and new covers like that would be just what I needed...

I got the leather from LSeat.com.

The standard seat version I purchased from here: https://www.lseat.com/products/1996-...ers-front.html

The sport seat version is here (I think): https://www.lseat.com/products/1996-...ers-front.html

And, they have yet another listing here: https://www.lseat.com/products/1996-...ers-front.html but these look like the same standard seats I purchased.

The catalog sucks, customer service isn't great, but I do know that is they don't have a pattern, you can ship it to them.

[geogecko87]

Cyberman, please post photos of your seats after installation. I'm interested as well.

[cyberman]

Cyberman, please post photos of your seats after installation. I'm interested as well.

I certainly will. My shop is booked until mid-September. In the meantime, I'm still waiting for my white shift boots to arrive from the UK and I have a little can of white leather spray paint for the door inserts.

Out of total boredom, I'm contemplating plasti-dipping the wheels black. I saw some pics online of black wheels against artic silver paint and thought they looked good. Here's a Dinan Roadster with 45k miles coming up for auction soon: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news...-sale-sept-12/

I like the effect of the black wheels, it's macho:

149-BMW.jpg

Nice thing about plasti-dip is that it's fully reversible. If I like it, I can always get my rims painted or powder coated.

So, anyone, what did you do to your car today?

[cyberman]

So, anyone, what did you do to your car today?

I'm focused on cosmetics now, seems I get more bang for the buck in satisfaction. This winter, I'll get back to the serious stuff, motor mounts, guibo, maybe the whole trailing arm bushing PITA. In the meantime, I decided to take the wheels off and:

1. Plasti-Dip them black (and I ordered Sonax to clean them).

2. Repaint the calipers. A PO painted them red and now it's dull and chipped. With no Amazon reviews, I decided to order a brush-on caliper paint kit in blue (it goes better with the whole BMW blue accents) against the arctic silver paint. Here's the URL: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09512JV72...hk_typ_imgToDp

61OzX4d-ELL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

[IndianaRoadster]

I certainly will. My shop is booked until mid-September. In the meantime, I'm still waiting for my white shift boots to arrive from the UK and I have a little can of white leather spray paint for the door inserts.

Out of total boredom, I'm contemplating plasti-dipping the wheels black. I saw some pics online of black wheels against artic silver paint and thought they looked good. Here's a Dinan Roadster with 45k miles coming up for auction soon: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news...-sale-sept-12/

I like the effect of the black wheels, it's macho:

149-BMW.jpg

Nice thing about plasti-dip is that it's fully reversible. If I like it, I can always get my rims painted or powder coated.

So, anyone, what did you do to your car today?

I know a lot of guys like the black wheel look but I guess I'm just old. Back when I was young black wheels meant you didn't have any hub caps on. So when I see black wheels that thought is what first comes to my mind. But hey if you like it go for it.

[BimmerBreaker]

Plasti-dip wheels are junk, please don't do that. When I'm shopping for cars to buy and I see plasti-dipped wheels, it usually is off my list immediately. Or, I'm factoring in a big discount on price. Plasti-dipped wheels to me say a lot about the owner, but nothing good

Nothing wrong with black wheels though. Do it right though and take them to get powdercoated. Or buy a second set you like more than your current wheels and get those powdercoated black to install next time you need tires

[IndianaRoadster]

Here locally in the Chicago land area you can get your wheels power coated for $80 per wheel.

[cyberman]

Here locally in the Chicago land area you can get your wheels power coated for $80 per wheel.

I'll check down here - thought it was more expensive than that. But add mount/dismount, new valve stems, maybe balancing.... So, over $400 as opposed to $50 for the rubberized plastidip.

Plasti-dip wheels are junk, please don't do that. When I'm shopping for cars to buy and I see plasti-dipped wheels, it usually is off my list immediately. Or, I'm factoring in a big discount on price. Plasti-dipped wheels to me say a lot about the owner, but nothing good

Wow, that's unequivocal. I lent my garage to a neighbor last year to plastidip his Audi's wheels, and I was impressed with how it turned out. I thought the whole idea of it is that it's easily removed (peelable), so what's the harm? I guess the issue is that on my budget I can't do everything I like quickly. In the big scheme of (my) things, the budget will be tapped out for a year or two on higher priority things, mainly the remaining mechanical restoration stuff. I can slip in cheap things such as the plastidip and caliper paint as the cost is more in my time than anything else. I'm thinking the plastidip would just be temporary gratification, a year or two until I can afford a better solution.

[cyberman]

I know a lot of guys like the black wheel look but I guess I'm just old.

I don't think black wheels would do much, if anything, for your beautiful, screaming "ticket me" red roadster. But I did see the black working with an otherwise mundane (boring) silver one.

[BimmerBreaker]

Wow, that's unequivocal. I lent my garage to a neighbor last year to plastidip his Audi's wheels, and I was impressed with how it turned out. I thought the whole idea of it is that it's easily removed (peelable), so what's the harm? I guess the issue is that on my budget I can't do everything I like quickly. In the big scheme of (my) things, the budget will be tapped out for a year or two on higher priority things, mainly the remaining mechanical restoration stuff. I can slip in cheap things such as the plastidip and caliper paint as the cost is more in my time than anything else. I'm thinking the plastidip would just be temporary gratification, a year or two until I can afford a better solution.

It only looks nice and is peelable when newly applied. After repeated heat cycles of the wheels, plus UV exposure, the dip gets hard and brittle and chips off instead of peeling off, leaving a really unsightly look. The dip also tends to go gray/brownish over time, no longer appearing a deep black color. The dip is then very hard to remove and often requires additional steps to remove it all which means more cost once you are ready to do the wheels "properly" - so you might save money now but you are creating more annoyance for whoever you want to re-do them properly in the future

Better off rattle can painting them to be honest

[cyberman]

Better off rattle can painting them to be honest

Thanks, did not know. I guess I'll wait until I can get them powder coated. Shoot.

[s8ilver]

I find it easier to remove paint than old Plasti-dip. When I bought my 42s several years ago, owner recommended I dip them to cover up the failing clear coat on the barrels. I told him that was a great idea, before I started haggling on price of course. His vindication got me $100 off his asking price, and more than paid for the materials to strip and refinish them properly.

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[cyberman]

Today I used Brillo leather spray to change my taninrot (ugly red) door hockey sticks to white. I learned some lessons along the way. I watched a video on how to remove them an re-upholster them properly and it looked like a PITA so I decided to try this. I used this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it comes in many colors. I know nothing about leather, but read the instructions and this is what I learned (or figured out):

1. The stuff isn't a dye, it doesn't penetrate the work piece. I think it's an acrylic with a lot of flex in it to work on shoes and pocketbooks. In the case of the door panels, they don't flex a whole lot.
2. The spray comes out very "dusty" and despite having alcohol-rubbed and 180 grit wet sanded the leather, it really had a hard time covering the almost reptilian texture of the door panels. The texture has numerous flat-top protrusions where the tops were a darker color and much harder than the surrounding material. The spray coloring just sort of run off the tops and it took many light coats for coverage. And, it I laid a medium coat, it would run and drip. In the end, it took so much paint to cover the passenger door that I didn't finish the driver's side. Since delivery is out another week, I'll have remask it again.
3. In my case, the leather inserts were far enough out that I could easily slip the edge of my masking tape underneath to get a clean edge.

Lessons:
1. Alcohol rub the surrounding areas or your masking tape won't stick.
2. Get a small can of paint-on stuff to get into the corners and cracks with a very small paint brush.
3. I didn't try it, but I was temped to pry the inserts off the door card, paint and then glue them back on. But I feared that might do too much damage.

Here's the pictures. The passenger side was done, the driver's side shows the first light coat going on:

white door.jpghalf-painted white.jpg

[Hoyt Clagwell]

I used a similar product on my wife's motorcycle seat and while it did not wear off, it did fade quite a bit in short order from UV rays. White may last longer. (what's it going to fade into?) I think there's a reason these types of products are not more popular. Good luck.

[s8ilver]

The "hockey sticks" are actually the long black plastic trim pieces above the leather panels. They attach to the door card the same way as the leather, with plastic pegs from behind that are heat sealed in place to the fiberboard backing. You can drill them out very carefully one by one and remove the pieces, but it's not very forgiving if you go too deep, and then you have to get creative for reattachment. If you got tape under the edges, you saved a lot of work.

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[s8ilver]

Note the black spots. Each is an attachment Point. You wouldn't have been able to pry them out without ruining the backing.

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[amancuso]

Here's some fresh pics of the 2.3 and the M.
IMG_8584 by Al, on Flickr

IMG_8189 by Al, on Flickr

[cyberman]

Here's some fresh pics of the 2.3 and the M.

I couldn't be more envious.

Note the black spots. Each is an attachment Point.

Thanks, I saw a high-speed video on the job and given my total lack of hand eye coordination, combined with my total lack of ability in all things requiring craftsmanship, I decided the paint route would do less harm...

[ragged325]

Here's some fresh pics of the 2.3 and the M . . .

That blue looks great. Looks immaculate.

[pine1000]

41CC7664-EB2C-4859-8769-80F8ED0A2AC8.jpg
Went on a nice road trip this weekend. These cars were made for twisty mountain roads!

[Hoyt Clagwell]

Went on a nice road trip this weekend. These cars were made for twisty mountain roads!

Amen!

[cyberman]

Went on a nice road trip this weekend. These cars were made for twisty mountain roads!

Another beautiful car! But what did you do for it or to it today?